helderberg watercolours – 20091208

Posted by Stephen Quirke on December 8, 2009 under Art, Helderberg, landscape, painting, watercolor, watercolour | 10 Comments to Read

At last I feel I am making progress in capturing the mountain and the pond in watercolour.  It helped leaving out the water-lilies – too much detail and fuss.  This is the latest:

helderberg12-D

This is 19×28 inches on Arches 185gm cold pressed.  And this is the one I did earlier this morning:

helderberg11-D

this is 28×38 on Arches 300gm cold pressed

  • Carol King said,

    Ah Stephen, More wonderful paintings of Helderberg! I particularly like these with the water in the foreground.
    The top one feels a little “cooler” to me. There’s still snow on the mountain tops yet I know you’are coming into summer there while we are slamming into winter quickly.
    The 2nd one looks more like a summer scene. Both are beautiful. I love how you captured the refelctions on the water.

  • Stephen Quirke said,

    Hi Carol – thats an interesting observation. I have been mixing Cobalt blue and Cadmium red for the darks and in the top one I used more blue. And I guess the greens have more yellow (Cd yellow mostly) in the second one. I feel more adept at the water now. S

  • Leslie White said,

    These are wonderful Stephen.I am gathering that they were two different times of day as I see heavy shadows on the mountain in the first one. Your water has always looked convincing to me but in these you’ve captured the reflected colors. Beautiful paintings, both. :)

  • Stephen Quirke said,

    Hi Leslie – I feel more relaxed about the scene which is usually a good sign. The light changes a lot over the mountain, especially on cloudy days. I did a quick sketch while I was up there yesterday and it was completely different. In these paintings I have tried to capture the structures in the rock faces, the slopes and the reflections. I worked from the same photo in both but did not try to get the saturations perfect. I am looking through all the books I have about how people do water – there is a technique – thanks for the comments hey – S

  • June Malone said,

    It’s interesting to see the progress jump you’ve made on this scene since the last post. You must get through a lot of paint with all these pictures…but clearly worth it. I like the fact that they’re both the same view, yet so different due to the time of day.

  • Stephen Quirke said,

    Hi June – thanks – I am encouraged that you see improvement. I am finding this quite a difficult scene to paint. I am using a lot of paint. I have just made quite a long list of colours to buy the next time I go past the art shop. Cheers hey S

  • Leslie White said,

    Congratulations, Stephen, for receiving the RA blogger’s award from Carol.

  • rahina qh said,

    an excellent collection of paintings: i find them very appealing. r

  • Stephen Quirke said,

    Hi Rahina
    Having seen your work, this is a great compliment. thanks hey – S

  • Stephen Quirke said,

    Ding! – OK I got it eventually
    Thanks hey Leslie

    S

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